In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session. For example, in Major League Baseball, one season lasts approximately from April 1 to October 1; in football, it is generally from August until May (although in some countries, especially those in Northern Europe(except Denmark) and East Asia, the season starts in the spring and finishes in the autumn, due either to weather conditions encountered during the winter or to limit conflict with locally more popular football codes).

A year can often be broken up into several distinct sections (sometimes themselves called seasons). These are: a preseason, a series of exhibition games played for training purposes; a regular season, the main period of the league's competition; the postseason, a playoff tournament played against the league's top teams to determine the league's champion; and the offseason, the time when there is no official competition.

Preseason

Most team sports have a period of training to recover fitness levels, followed by exhibition games (commonly known as friendlies outside North America) prior to the start of their regular seasons ("pre-season training" and "pre-season" games). The game results do not count in the season standings of the teams, so they serve conveniently to test player candidates and to practice teamwork under game conditions. They may be used to promote the team effectively both at home and elsewhere. For some teams a pre-season overseas tour may be profitable, even lucrative. For some leagues, overseas games may promote their sport or their league to new audiences.

In some sports there may be a pre-season curtain-raiser or "supercup" competition--for example, in England, the previous season's winners of the FA Cup and Premier League play one another for the Community Shield before the start of the regular season. Part of the profits from this game are divided up amongst all teams participating in both competitions the year before, to donate to charities and good causes in their local area while the rest is given to national charities and good causes by the FA itself.

Regular season

In sport, the term "regular season" or "home and away season"[1] refers to the sport's league competition. The regular season is usually similar to a group tournament format: teams are divided into groups, conferences and/or divisions, and each club plays a set number of games against a set number of opponents. In most countries the league is played in a double round-robin format, where every team plays every other team twice, once at their home venue, and once away at the oppositions venue as visitors. The results over all games are accumulated and when every team has completed its full schedule of games, a winner is declared.

In North America, the scheduling is different. Rather than every team playing all others twice, teams usually play more games against local rivals than teams in other parts of the country. For example, the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers will play the Los Angeles Clippers (a team within their division, a subdivision of the conference) four times in a regular season, while both will only play the Boston Celtics, who are in the opposite Eastern Conference, twice. Part of this is due to the vast geographic distances between some teams in North America--measured in a straight line Los Angeles is 2,606 miles (4,194 kilometers) from Boston, for instance--and a desire to limit travel expenses. In the scheduling system used in the NFL, it is possible for two teams to only meet every four years, and to only have 2 common opponents in a season. Major League Baseball has the most uneven schedules of all the four major North American sports. In MLB the conferences are called leagues instead, but have exactly the same effect as conferences (as with all North American major leagues, leagues, conferences and division are not based on skill, but instead geography, history and rivalries). Teams play 19 games against each of teams in their own division each year but will only play 20 games total against all of the teams in the other league. Because each of the interleague matchups is part of a 3-game series or a 2-game series, teams will play no games at all against most teams from the other league. They play 6 of the 15 teams in the other league, a historically high number (until 1997, interleague play was limited to exhibition matches and the postseason World Series, and thus MLB teams did not play the other league's teams at all).

In Australia, the two largest football leagues, the AFL (Australian rules football) and NRL (rugby league), both grew out of competitions held within a single city (respectively Melbourne and Sydney) and only began expanding to the rest of the country when inexpensive air travel made a national league possible. These leagues use a single table instead of being split into divisions. The term "home and away season" is sometimes used instead of regular season.

Many football leagues in Latin America have a very different system. Because most Latin American countries never had a football cup competition, they instead split their season into two parts, typically known as the Apertura and Clausura (Spanish for "opening" and "closing"). Most countries that use this system, Argentina being one notable example, crown separate league champions for each part of the season, using only league play. A few others, such as Uruguay, crown one champion at the end of a playoff involving top teams from each half of the season. Mexico operates its Apertura and Clausura as separate competitions that both end in playoffs. Brazil have a different system, the season starts with the state championships in January (every Brazilian state have his own championship), these state championships ends in April. The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A itself starts in May and ends in early December, and is played in a double round-robin format in the same way as the European championships.

A system similar to the Apertura and Clausura developed independently in Philippine professional basketball, with formerly two, now three tournaments (called "conferences") in one season, with each conference divided into an "elimination round" (the regular season) and the playoffs in the North American sense. Winning the playoffs is the ultimate goal of every team for every conference; while there is no season championship, winning all conferences within a single season is rare and has only happened five times since 1975, with the two most recent examples occurring in 1996 and 2013-14. The elimination round and playoffs setup has permeated down to the local level and in most team sports, although seasons are not divided into conferences.

European leagues have also started holding playoffs after a double round-robin "regular season". The Football League started its promotion playoffs in 1987, with the third up to the sixth-ranked teams participating for the final promotion berth (the two top teams are automatically promoted). Elsewhere, relegation playoffs are also held to determine which teams would be relegated to the lower leagues. One prominent top-level football league, the Eredivisie of the Netherlands, uses two different playoffs--one for relegation purposes, and the other to determine one of the league's entrants in the following season's UEFA Europa League. In Superleague Greece, which currently has two places in the UEFA Champions League and three in the Europa League, the teams that finish second through fifth in the regular season enter a home-and-away "playoff" mini-league. Since one Europa League place is reserved for the country's cup winner, only three of the four teams are guaranteed a place in the next season's European competitions (unless both the cup winner and runner-up are already qualified for Europe by other means). The playoff determines the country's second Champions League participant, and the points at which the two or three Europa League entrants join that competition. Conversely, some leagues like the Premier League do not hold a postseason, and therefore these leagues' champions and relegation are instead based on the regular season records.

Although rugby union did not become professional until 1995, that sport has a long history of playoffs, primarily in France and the Southern Hemisphere. The French national championship, now known as Top 14, staged a championship final in its first season of 1892, first used more than one round of playoffs in 1893, and has continuously operated a playoff system (except during the two World Wars) since 1899. South Africa's Currie Cup has determined its champions by playoffs since 1968, and New Zealand's National Provincial Championship, the top level of which is now known as the Mitre 10 Cup, has used playoffs since its creation in 1976. Argentina's Nacional de Clubes has determined its champion by playoffs since its inception in 1993. Currently, two separate competitions feed into the Nacional, the Torneo de la URBA (for Buenos Aires clubs, held since 1899) and Torneo del Interior (for the rest of the country); both use playoffs to determine their champions. Super Rugby, involving regional franchises from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa and national franchises in Argentina and Japan, has used playoffs to determine its champions since its creation as Super 12 in 1996.

By contrast, other European countries were slow to adopt playoffs in rugby union. The English Premiership only began playoffs in 1999-2000, and did not use them to determine the league champion until 2002-03. The Celtic League, now known as Pro14, resisted a playoff system even longer; its champions were determined solely by league play from its inception in 2001-02 until playoffs began in 2009-10.

When the UEFA Champions League reformatted in 1993, it added a "knockout stage" involving four teams that finished at the top two places in their respective groups. Like North American sports leagues, this setup prevented some participants from facing each other, necessitating a two-round knockout stage to determine the champions. It has since been expanded to the 4-round knockout stage today. The Copa Libertadores has applied a knockout stage since the 1988 tournament, expanding to the current four-round format next season. All intercontinental club football competitions now feature a knockout stage.

Off-season

The off-season, vacation time, or close season is the time of year when there is no official competition. Although upper management continues to work, the athletes will take much vacation time off. Also, various events such as drafts, transfers and important off-season free agent signings occur. Generally, most athletes stay in shape during the off-season in preparation for the next season. Certain new rules in the league may be made during this time, and will become enforced during the next regular season.

As most countries which have a league in a particular sport will operate their regular season at roughly the same time as the others, international tournaments may be arranged during the off season.

For example, most European football league club competitions run from July or August to May, subsequently major international competitions such as the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Football Championship are organised to occur in June and July.

Seasons by league

The table represents typical seasons for some leagues by month. Blank or white denotes off-season and pre-season months and solid colors mark the rest of the year. Leagues in the same sport use the same color.

^Replaced the former European club competition, the Heineken Cup, effective in 2014-15.

^The current scheduling, in which the season starts in January, took effect in 2012. In 2010 and 2011, the schedule began late in the previous calendar year.

^The bulk of the tour's sole-sanctioned events are in Europe, with some in the Persian Gulf countries. It co-sanctions many other events with tours in Asia, Africa, and Australia. Along with the PGA Tour, the European Tour co-sanctions the major championships and the World Golf Championships; one of the majors is held in the UK, one of the WGC events is held in China, and the rest of these events are in the US.

^The league originally involved only the three Celtic nations; Italy joined beginning in the 2010-11 season, and South Africa in 2017-18.

^Since the 2015 season, the only series race held outside the U.S. is hosted by Canada. Australia, Brazil, and Japan have hosted races in the past.

^As of the upcoming 2017-18 season, there are 21 teams in Russia and one each in Belarus, China, Finland, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Slovakia.

^Like many football leagues in Latin America, Mexico divides its season into two phases with separate champions in each phase. Unlike most leagues in that sport, Liga MX uses a knockout playoff, involving the top eight teams after league play, to determine its champions.

^Most LPGA events are held in the US, but it also sole-sanctions official money events in Thailand, Singapore, Mexico, China, Canada, Malaysia, and Taiwan, as well as an unofficial event in Brazil. Since 2013, two of its majors, one in the UK and the other in France, have been co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour. The LPGA also co-sanctions events with the Korean LPGA and Japan LPGA in those countries and the ALPG Tour in Australia.

^The World Series usually ends in late October, but can extend into early November.

^Since the 2013 season, the top two NASCAR touring series, the Cup Series and Xfinity Series, race only in the US. The third-level Truck Series has a race in Canada. The Xfinity Series has previously held races in Canada and Mexico. NASCAR also operates national series in Canada and Mexico and a European series, plus many regional developmental series in the US.

^NASCAR has used a playoff-style system to determine the champion of the Cup Series since 2004; in 2016, it extended this system to its other two U.S. national touring series. The playoffs in the Xfinity and Truck Series are shorter than that of the Cup Series, starting in October.

^The vast majority of the PGA Tour's sole-sanctioned events are in the US proper, but the tour also has events in Malaysia, Mexico, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Along with the European Tour, the PGA Tour co-sanctions the major championships and the World Golf Championships; one of the majors is held in the UK, one of the WGC events is held in China, and the rest of these events are in the US.

^The 2016-17 season marked the completion of Argentina's transition from its former calendar-year Apertura and Clausura season format to a single league season spanning two calendar years.

^Currently, one race is held in New Zealand. Bahrain, China, the United Arab Emirates, and the USA have staged races in the past. Longer-term plans call for additional races in Hong Kong, India, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, and South Korea.

^Argentine and Japanese teams joined the competition in 2016. The Japanese team divides its "home" matches between Tokyo and Singapore.

^The playoffs, or "finals" as they are officially called, begin in late June in Rugby World Cup years.

^During World Cup years, the final match is held in July; in other years, the finals begin in July.

^Depending on the calendar, the final may fall on the last weekend of May in some seasons.

^During Summer Olympic years, the WNBA Finals run into late October. In non-Summer Olympic years, the WNBA Finals end in early October.

Summary

Sport

Duration

American football

August to December, playoffs from January to early February. College bowl games from December to January. Indoor football, past professional leagues such as the USFL and XFL, and some women's and amateur leagues play in the February to August season.

Association football

Usually August to May in the Northern Hemisphere, and February to November in the Southern Hemisphere. Exceptions are generally for one of two reasons:

In some northern countries with severe winter weather (such as the United States, Norway, and Sweden), the season is contested within a calendar year (roughly March to November) to avoid the worst weather.

However, other leagues use winter breaks to avoid most of the coldest days to prevent players suffering from hypothermia.

In some countries where soccer competes with locally more popular football codes (i.e. Major League Soccer in the U.S., A-League in Australia), the season is arranged so as to minimize the time that it is in conflict with the more popular code(s). This arrangement also eases scheduling concerns regarding venues used for multiple football codes. However, in the case of the United States' MLS, their regular seasons can conflict with major tournaments such as the Gold Cup and FIFA World Cup due to the demand of the league's best national players to participate in the national squad.

March to late August, with finals series extending up to late September or early October.

Baseball

April to early October, with playoffs extending up to early November. The Australian Baseball League runs from November to early February, with playoffs extending up to late February.

Basketball

In most countries, late October to mid-April, with playoffs extending up to mid-June. The three major exceptions to this rule are:

The U.S. college basketball season begins in mid-November. The regular season ends in the first days of March, followed by conference tournaments and then national championship tournaments that run into early April.

The Philippine Basketball Association has a unique calendar. Its season runs from early October to August, and is divided into "conferences"--not the North American concept of subgroupings within a larger competition, but rather separate competitions involving the same set of teams, similar to football's Apertura and Clausura in Latin America. The season was divided into three conferences from 1975 to 2003. It then transitioned to a two-conference season in 2004, and also changed to a season spanning two calendar years, with the transition completed in the 2004-05 season. The PBA returned to a three-conference season effective in 2010-11. The season starts with the Philippine Cup, restricted to Filipino players, followed by two other tournaments in which teams can field one non-Filipino, the Commissioner's and Governors Cups.

The WNBA season is scheduled during the offseason of its parent league, the NBA. When the league was launched, all of its teams were owned by NBA teams and generally played in the same arenas as their NBA counterparts; however, this has changed over time. The scheduling also allows many WNBA players to participate in overseas leagues, primarily in Europe, Australia, and China, during the traditional basketball season.

Canadian football

July to late October, with playoffs extending into November.

Cricket

Year-round. Domestic seasons typically held in the driest period of the year--summer in temperate climates, dry season in tropical climates.

Golf

Year-round

Ice hockey

Early October to mid-April, with playoffs extending up to early June. The three major exceptions to this rule are:

The U.S. college hockey season begins in early November. The regular season ends in late February, followed by conference tournaments and then national championship tournaments that run into mid-April.

The KHL regular season begins in early September and ends in late February. The playoffs run from March to mid-April.

The Australian Ice Hockey League's season runs from April to mid-August, with playoffs extending up to late August.

Motor racing

Year-round, but generally concentrated from March to October. NASCAR runs from mid-February to late September, with playoffs extending up to late November.

Rugby league

Late February to October in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Rugby union

September to late May, sometimes the first weekend in June, in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, Super Rugby starts in February and ends in early July in World Cup years and mid-August in other years. Domestic competitions in New Zealand and South Africa overlap slightly with the Super Rugby season, starting in July and ending in October or November. In Australia, the domestic competition does not overlap at all with Super Rugby, instead beginning in August and ending in early November.

This book presents the fundamentals of chaos theory in conservative systems and provides a systematic study of the theory of transitional states of physical systems that lie between deterministic and chaotic behavior. The authors begin with the general concepts of Hamiltonian dynamics, stabililty, and chaos, and then discuss the theory of stochastic layers and webs and the numerous applications of this theory, particularly to pattern symmetry. Throughout, they are meticulous in providing a detailed presentation of the material, which enables the reader to learn the necessary computational methods and to apply them to other problems. The inclusion of computer graphics will aid understanding and the final section of the book contains a collection of patterns in art and living nature that will fascinate.

The authors chronicle changes and improvements and provide hard-to-find information on design and development of the models, serial numbers, codes, production numbers, and anything else an F series enthusiast could want to know. Indispensable to anyone restoring a Farmall F series tractor, the book also provides a clear and fascinating picture of an icon of agricultural history and the machinery of Americana.

The stock market crashed and the countrys fields turned to dust, and the tractor, that workhorse of American agriculture, was one more casualty. But in the face of disaster, International Harvester kept improving on its successful Farmall tractor and finally arrived at the F series, which includes some of the finest and best-loved tractors of all time.

These are the tractors that pulled American farmers out of the Great Depression. Archival and modern color photographs and detailed text follow the series from the F-12, F-14, and the vastly popular F-20 that replaced the Farmall Regular to huge machines like the F-30, which was better-suited to breaking the Great Plains.

Getting Inside the Mind of Nature: Discover the simple but powerful mathematics of the underlying geometric figures that shape our world

Can geometry be exciting?

It can for those who can appreciate the beauty of numbers and their relationships.

This book contains a meticulous geometric investigation of the 5 Platonic Solids and 5 other important polyhedra, as well as reference charts for each solid.

Poly (many) hedron (face) means "many faces." Polyhedra are 3 dimensional figures with 4 or more faces, or sides. These polyhedra are reflections of Nature herself, and a study of them provides insight into the way the world is structured. Nature is not only beautiful, but highly intelligent. As you explore the polyhedra in this book, this will become apparent over and over again.

The book contains a geometric explanation of the Phi Ratio and Fibonacci series, and a detailed analysis of the pentagon, which forms the basis for many of these solids. The pentagon is composed entirely of Phi relationships, and is integral to a proper understanding of sacred geometry.

With over 140 full-color illustrations, this book is perfect for teachers and students of geometry alike. It is a must for those who are serious about sacred geometry.

This book is dedicated to those who can appreciate the logic of numbers and the beauty of nature, for they are both aspects of the same unifying principle.

Prerequisites: knowledge of simple algebra and elementary trigonometry. No brainiac math skills required! Only the ability to appreciate nature's own logic.

Itâs difficult to imagine todayâwhen the Super Bowl has virtually become a national holiday and the National Football League is the countryâs dominant sports entityâbut pro football was once a ramshackle afterthought on the margins of the American sports landscape. In the span of a single generation in postwar America, the game charted an extraordinary rise in popularity, becoming a smartly managed, keenly marketed sports entertainment colossus whose action is ideally suited to television and whose sensibilities perfectly fit the modern age.

Â

Americaâs Game traces pro footballâs grand transformation, from the World War II years, when the NFL was fighting for its very existence, to the turbulent 1980s and 1990s, when labor disputes and off-field scandals shook the game to its core, and up to the sportâs present-day preeminence. A thoroughly entertaining account of the entire universe of professional football, from locker room to boardroom, from playing field to press box, this is an essential book for any fan of Americaâs favorite sport.

Marvin ÂBad Newsâ Barnes was considered a future Hall of Fame basketball player before he even graduated from college. A standout at Providence College, where he averaged 20.7 points and 17.9 rebounds per game, he was an All-American with the world at his fingertips.

Although Barnes enjoyed two highly successful years in the American Basketball Association with the Spirits of St. Louis (winning Rookie of the Year honors and twice being named an All-Star), his career fizzled in the NBA as he wore out his welcome with the Detroit Pistons, Buffalo Braves, Boston Celtics, and San Diego Clippers in four years. His immaturity, as well as a chronic losing battle with drugs and alcohol, turned a potential superstar into a has-been by 1979. By then, his swagger was gone. So too was his game.

Written by Mike Carey, who opened his house to Barnes later in his life, this is the story of a supremely gifted athlete whose self-destructive nature led to him living on the mean streets of East San Diego for three years as a panhandler and pimp. Eventually he would serve a total of five years in prison for various felony charges, including the sale of cocaine.Throughout his life, every time it appeared that ÂBad Newsâ had turned the corner, his demons reappeared and succeeded in luring him back into becoming a conniving dope fiend.

On September 8, 2014, Barnes finally hit rock bottom, passing away due to acute cocaine and heroin intoxication. He was sixty-two years old.

With stories and quotes from Julius Erving, Bill Walton, Larry Brown, Mike DâAntoni, and many others who crossed paths with Barnes, as well as a foreword from former Spirits announcer Bob Costas, ÂBad Newsâ is the story of a squandered talent who could never defeat his inner demons.

With Stained Glass: Coloring for Everyone, you'll be inspired by the beauty of stained glass. Often seen in churches and historical buildings, these gorgeous works of art are intricate, vibrant designs made of colored panes of glass. Create your own entrancing designs by coloring the elegant patterns within these pages. In this book, you'll find:

An introduction to the history and art form of stained glassForty-five original black-and-white designs for your coloring pleasure on single-sided perforated pagesForty-five full-color versions of the designs to inspire and guide you while coloringThe pages of this adult coloring book are guaranteed to provide hours of relaxing entertainment. Let your creativity spread its wings as you explore the rich world of stained glass. Gather your colored pencils, markers, or whatever medium you prefer, and imagine the possibilities.

A great way for your children to learn Greek. This book is for beginners and has 43 colorful lessons. Each lesson has Greek and English vocabulary. This book also includes: Greek/English and English/Greek glossary, the Greek alphabet, syllables and everyday simple words, short common phrases, simple verbs, and simple sentences. Topics include: greetings, clothing, food, school, religion, family activities, numbers, colors, days of the week, boys' and girls' names, animals, fruits and more. Make sure to also purchase the workbook and the audio cd program that accompany this book.